On April Fool’s Day this year, the owners of Mountain Creek ski resort and waterpark in New Jersey pulled what seemed like a great prank: They replaced the resort’s sign with one for the old Action Park, the notorious “extreme” amusement park that operated on the site from 1978 to 1996. Six visitors died there, and its seemingly anything-goes approach to summer fun earned it the nicknames “Class Action Park” and “Traction Park.”

New Jersey’s notorious Action Park is back in business. But would you go? Fans nostalgic for its calamity-filled past say, “Hell, yeah!”Photo: Zandy Mangold

“At Action Park, it felt like you were in some crazy guy’s backyard,” says Dave Schlussman, a 30-year-old from Greenpoint, who in elementary school belly-flopped so hard out of a failed backflip off the park’s Tarzan Swing — just a swing over a freezing cold pool — that his eyeballs felt bruised. “The rides defied any kind of procedure.”

The place was as packed with urban legends as it was with lawsuits: Some — snakes in the rapids ride — were most likely fiction; others — tales of the owner bribing employees with cash to test drive some of the rides for safety or starting his own insurance company — were real.

But the sign was no joke: Action Park was actually coming back this summer from the original owners.

What’s now open at the 35-acre site in Vernon, NJ, is an amalgam of the old and the new — gone are the race cars with shoddy brakes and the park’s most infamous attraction, a water slide with a full vertical loop, which was open for just a month before knocking around too many kids and shutting down for good.

Which isn’t to say Action Park is tame now. Far from it.

The new Action Park promises to be safer, but you still risk bruises jumping off attractions like the Cliff Jump.Photo: Zandy Mangold

The original owners, who had sold the park in 1998 — to a group that changed the name to Mountain Creek — bought it back in 2010 and started restoring old rides such as a river rapids, which they say the previous owners had dulled down. They’re adding a new $1 million Zero G water slide, which they say will be the world’s tallest of its kind when it opens later this summer pending inspection. Riders stand in a capsule, where a trapdoor drops them into the 100-foot-tall slide.

But it wasn’t until an online documentary about the old Action Park — titled “The Most Insane Amusement Park Ever” — went viral last year that the owners realized: Not only do people remember the old park, which drew a million visitors annually at its prime; they miss it.

“The overall conclusion that the people who went to Action Park have is that it was a phenomenal place,” says Andy Mulvihill, who now owns the resort and is the son of the park’s founder Gene Mulvihill, who died in 2012. “I don’t get approached by people telling me what a terrible place it was. The strength of that passion far outweighed the negative things.”

“Negative things” is putting it lightly. One report claimed that in 1987, five to 10 people per day were being brought into the emergency room from the park. The New Jersey Herald reported the park actually bought the town of Vernon additional ambulances to keep up with demand.

Deaths were caused by, among other things, electrocution in a kayak ride, drowning in the wave pool and a heart attack in ice-cold water.

At a cost of $1 million, the ZERO G waterslide is one of the park’s most ambitious to date. Riders stand in a capsule and wait for a trap door to send them shooting through two horizontal loops. At 100 feet high, it’ll be the world’s tallest double-looping slide when it opens later this summer.Photo: Zandy Mangold

The old Alpine Slide seemed to be the biggest culprit for mishaps, frequently shredding skin on its concrete track. People reportedly also hit their heads on the floor of shallow pools, got caught in the terrifying suction of the wave pool and suffered abrasions on their legs after having to crawl out of a water slide tunnel. Broken or fractured bones were common, as were busted teeth.

But nostalgia is a potent drug, and the new Action Park is sticking itself right in the main vein: The name and original retro rainbow-colored signs are back. On Saturday, former employees gathered for a reunion. The gift shop is selling tongue-in-cheek “I Survived Action Park” T-shirts.

OLD: The old Alpine Slide was a concrete track with cars controlled only by an often shoddy hand brake, leading to lots of injuries and one reported death.Photo: Courtesy of Action Park

NEW: For the Alpine Mountain Coaster, riders still control the speed using a brake, but the metal track eliminates the risk of wipeouts.Photo: Zandy Mangold

It might seem like a risky move in the age of helicopter parents and endless litigation. Or maybe it’s the best rebranding since New Coke went back to Classic.

“It was the time before insurance companies had their hands in everything, before everything is tested and rubber-coated within an inch of its life,” says Seth Porges, 30, who co-produced the documentary and lives in Williamsburg. “You might get hurt, but if you walked away, you have a great story.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker tweeted that he still had scars from the old park, but said: “I so want to go again.”

Can the new Action Park recapture the old magic? A handful of the old attractions never left: The 23-foot cliff jump is still there, as are a few water slides. The Tarzan Swing got a safety upgrade, with pads protecting swingers. Eleonora Walczak of Greenpoint, showing off her leg scars from the old park while climbing out of the Cannonball Falls pool on Tuesday, said she was surprised to see the Colorado River ride now required helmets with facemasks.

“There were some really zany things that went on back then,” park president Bill Benneyan says. “In three decades, the industry is different, the regulations are different, the safety training is different.”

The park’s original owner, Gene Mulvihill, has been described alternately as a folksy industrialist in the vein of John Rockefeller, a mad scientist with an oversize toy set or a canny, sometimes pushy businessman who kept politicians in his pocket. The decision to unveil the name on April Fool’s Day was a nod to his mischievous streak.

Mulvihill’s company, Great American Recreation, owned the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski area, and started to add rides in 1978 to expand summer business. The first was the Alpine Slide, which sent people down a concrete track built into a hill in a car controlled only by a hand brake.

Henry Winnik, a 29-year-old filmmaker in Cobble Hill, watched a friend make a hard turn and skid down the concrete. The friction ripped off the skin on his right arm from the elbow to the shoulder: “It was raw,” he recalls.

OLD: The original Tarzan Swing wasn’t much more than a rope you’d see over a country swimming hole, complete with a splinter- riddled platform.Photo: Courtesy of Action Park

NEW: The new version offers three swings attached to a metal archway with a padded platform. The water is still just as cold, though.Photo: Zandy Mangold

Another rider died in 1980 after being thrown from the slide and suffering a head injury.

Now, the park calls its Alpine Mountain Coaster a “cousin” of the fatal slide. A car glides down a metal track around twists and turns. You control the speed with a hand brake, and spills are nearly impossible because it’s locked onto the track.

Still, the new version of the park isn’t passive, like competitor Six Flags Great Adventure, where every visitor has basically the same strap-in-and-ride experience. Flop the wrong way off the Cliff Jump, and you could end up with bruises all over your legs. The Colorado River ride tossed our raft so close to the cave walls, we were thankful we were wearing those goofy helmets. Oh, and they serve booze to patrons, which creates its own sense of adventure for older park goers.

Gene Mulvihill made money in a series of businesses: real estate, early cellphones, MRI technology and cancer research, his son says, and seemed to have created the park out of sheer force of personality.

“He just didn’t accept that you couldn’t try something or do something,” says Andy Mulvihill, one of Gene’s six kids. “He was not a big believer in government control.”

Gene told the Newark Star-Ledger that Action Park was almost a labor of love: “I never made any money up there,” he told the paper in 1996. “All that place did was cost me money.”

Mulvihill set up an insurance company based in the Cayman Islands to cover the park, a move which caught the attention of state investigators. In 1984, he pleaded guilty to charges for setting up an insurance fraud scheme, and was slapped with tens of thousands of dollars in fines, according to court records.

For a long time, Mulvihill deftly outmaneuvered would-be litigants, Porges says. He refused to settle out of court and used his wealth to exhaust claimants. Action Park was reportedly fined just once for not following procedure.

But by 1996, it was facing mounting lawsuits and declining attendance as bad headlines spread. It filed for bankruptcy, $40 million in debt.

OLD: The twisting and turning rapids ride mimicked a real river — so much so that it was borderline dangerous.Photo: Courtesy of Action Park

NEW: The park requires riders to wear helmets with face masks. You’ll be happy for them when the raft slams near the walls of a cave.Photo: Zandy Mangold

Visitors say they remember the park as a lawless Neverland where staff never yelled at anyone.

“Even as a kid you’re like, ‘They should probably be taking this a little more seriously,’” says Andy Fiori, 35, a stand-up comedian and radio producer in Astoria.

Was anyone actually inebriated during work, as rumors say?

“I think that was mostly confined to after-hours stuff,” says Therese Mahler, 41, of Jersey City, who worked at the park through college.

The site weirdnj.com, a repository of urban legends, reported the park used crash test dummies to test rides. Andy Mulvihill says his dad would have him test the rides decked out in hockey pads.

Mahler says the bosses often asked for staff volunteers to test the rides each day. On the rare occasions no one would volunteer, the boss would offer a cash bribe.

The new park has attentive lifeguards with whistles at the ready, and omnipresent safety signage.

“The world’s changed,” Mulvihill says. “I refuse to be involved in any rides where anybody can get hurt.”

Still, if there’s a chance to push the envelope, Demetri Kringas, 24, of Sleepy Hollow, NY, is seizing it.

“We push the limits on this park every day,” says Kringas, visiting the park with friends on a Tuesday. He’s gone headfirst on almost every slide, which is against the rules. “They’re always yelling at us.”

What's your favorite story from the old Action Park?

>>> So i used to go there in '91 & '92 when they had ELECTRIC EELS in the Speed-Boat Lake. The DUNE Buggies were great to Maneuver & CRASH into those CONES - I enjoyed doing that ....The Tanks were BORING . They had a LONG BUNGEE-JUMP Ride on the Dirt by the Parking Lot . THAT was a LONG CORD that could swing real Hard......SURF HILL was the BEST when it Did NOT have those Lanes Divided up and it was ALL ONE BIG HILL - I could floor the MAT all the WAY to the END & hit the WOOD !! As for the Cliff-Diving and that SLIDE thats elevated - If you take a RUNNING Start and JUMP on that SLIDE while RUNNING then you have a FAST GLIDE Off that Cliff and TWISTS your Entire Body - Many Landings were on my SIDE and it Pleasantly Hurt. and the SINGLE TUBE Rides were Superior in that YOU had Complete Control but the Family Sized TUBE had a More EXTENSIVE & Curving Track - The MORE Weight on the TUBE and the More "SWING" you get . Also i remember you could get AIR & Brush up HIGH Against the Inside Cave Walls and hit your Head but arent they made of SOFT-RUBBER - so WHY you need HELMETS ?? Now they have that FUNNEL Ride which is NOT as GOOD . The Cannonball has a REAL Curvy track thats better than the Other track & the KAMIKAAZEE Slide is best to KEEP your EYES Closed or you get MUCH water splashing Up. and talk about the ULTIMATE - WEDGIE <<<<<<Did they Just have GAY Night with Plenty of TRANNY's ??

Old video looks fun,half of that stuff I didn't see it 2 years ago,I Will love those cart and more,I had a bit of bad experience with my daughter in rapid river which she let go and couldn't grab back on,she jumped in the air! Fell in the middle I couldn't let go to grab her,so with my legs I hold her down until the end,I bit more she could jump out the go down the river hitting every maybe gone too,either need to put helmets or age restrictions,kids working there don't care,just let anyone go,that's what I noticed,to young workers to care for safety.

I would have loved that place. We used to do stuff like what went on at that park all the time. But we hung our own ropes for the swings. And jumped off of 50 foot high cliffs into the spillway. And the cliff at the rock quarry. And made huge wooden ramps in the middle of the street so we could fly through the air on our bikes, then come crashing down on the asphalt. Fun times. But kids today are so so sheltered and protected and feminized.

@plwood I grew up just over the border in Orange County so I spent a whole lot
of summers at Action Park. My buddy and I were two of the few souls
that consistently rode the sketchy skatepark that was just up from the
parking lot, It was the smoothest concrete we had ever seen surrounded
by asphalt. The drains actually did the opposite of drain and let water
flood the one bowl, the “halfpipe” and the lower sections of the three
somewhat unrideable snake runs… We rode every ride they had to offer! We
got in good, befriended the ride attendants, claimed we “worked” at the
skatepark and never paid after the first summer. They closed the
skatepark in the mid eighties but we could always find someone we knew
to let us on the rides or grab us some passes. I have so many
stories…girls…injuries….We once put a small set of blue Kryptonite skate
wheels on one of the alpine slide cars. They were of a slightly larger
diameter than the stock wheels. This rendered the brakes almost useless.
The only way to slow was to nosedrag the car into the fiberglass run by
leaning forward. You waited for the run to clear ahead of you and then
took it at full speed plus! We would wear full pads and helmets and
remember to tuck into a ball and roll clear of the cart when you’d fly
out of the channel. You would sometimes spin the cart sideways across
the channel. In deference to the skateboard trick-we called this a
“cartslide”….Good times! If my memory is correct-the whole place was run
by kids…I can maybe recall some college students and maybe two adults
being around but it was a youth worked operation and it showed! If
anyone that reads this remembers the skatepark days, respond here and
I’ll pm…

I used to work at Action Park and am happy it is "returning". They should have brought back the "old" Alpine Slide though. I worked on that ride and it was AWESOME!!!! The staff would wait until a rider got to the bottom of the hill and THEN we would fly down the mountain at breakneck speeds. lol!!! I STILL have scars on my legs from falling off the cart onto the slide. We used to drink liquor and smoke weed on that mountain all day long; I can't WAIT to see what employees will be doing THESE days! lolololol!!! #LONGLIVETHEALPINESLIDE

This article is 100% misleading. This isn't really a "Return". It's been Mountain Creek Waterpark for literally about the last 15 years, since about 1998 or so, off the top of my head. It's always been a waterpark, they just changed the name back to Action Park. It's not like it closed down completely and now they're opening it back up again. I had a season pass to Mtn. Creek Waterpark a few years back. So again, this isn't a return, rather just a simple name change.

There were three alpine slides, two regular and one advanced. I never used the brake until I caught up to someone going too slow for me and then the rest of the ride sucked. One day I delayed getting started at the top on the advanced and untied and tied both shoes to give the person in front more time to get further away. I didn't hit the brake at all and coming around a curve flew with the cart off the slide into a hay stack. This place was awesome!

Last week my step grandson showed me a bruise on his knee that he got from falling while running around the playground at daycare. I said "good, that means you had a good time."

I love this place and go whenever I have the chance. I broke my arm here a few years back too ha. Stupidity on my part basically, not their fault. Big fun here. Went back last year and will take the kids whenever I can. Makes the place down in Jackson look tame and boring. Nice and shady there too.

During the 80's and 90's due to fear of litigation, playgrounds were made ultra safe and ultra boring. Then research came out saying that kids in super safe playgrounds weren't developing enough risk-taking and risk-managing skills. It was too safe. "Risk can be useful training for children, recent scientific articles assert. In a report in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist in the faculty of medicine at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues suggest risky play ultimately keeps children safer by allowing them to learn how to take and manage risk." - Wall Street Journal , "Are Playgrounds Too Safe?"

@180rmr Yeah, my kids had never even seen a merry-go-round or a see-saw until they were 10, at some old county park that nobody maintained (i.e., replaced old swings with jumper straps and merry-go-rounds with ladybugs-on-springs on rubber mats). They had a blast just getting dizzy and jumping/falling off, and trying to jump on when it was spinning fast. Maybe it's worse out here, but we've lived under the tyranny of the prudes too long!

I went here several times as a kid. I missed this place so much when it was sold. Now at 31 I'm excited as ever to go back and will bring my son when he is old enough. I loved the Alpine Slide and that water is beyond cold at the Tarzan Swing. This is awesome it's coming back!!

Did the original Alpine Slide many times during the summer of 1977 (it pre-dated the rest of Tr-Action Park). I regularly saw middle-aged women confuse the brake with the glide setting and go flying over a curve into the woods . . . handbag and all (whoopps!) like a Little Rascals movie.

My friends and I always went to Action Park every summer during the early eighties. It was a blast. Sure people got injured, usually from being careless. But this place was what an "amusement park" should be. Not standing in line for a long time to throw up from the stupidity of poorly thought out rides. Water parks rule!